Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Will molds break? Will piercings trump colored hair? Will Glenn smile? This. Is. "Face Off!" Season Eight is underway but with a twist: three former champions return as coaches to the newest crop of artists.

The coaches are Rayce from Season Two, Anthony from Season Four and Laura from Season Five but in a twist! (drink), not only are they coaching their teams, they are also competing against each other to win. Again. But here's the catch: they can only win if a member of their team wins. If their entire team is eliminated, so are they. There might be a slight conflict of interest here somewhere. Everyone got that? Okay, good. How will they choose their teams? Via a Foundation Challenge of course!Foundation Challenge
The artists are to design a companion to one of each coach's signature creations: Bioluminescent (Anthony), Earth Goddess (Laura) and Tim Burton World Cellist (Rayce). Oh, and someone else will be judging you today - Ve Neill. Welcome back, Ve!

Early interesting back stories this season so far are Emily, who at 18 is the youngest contestant ever on "Face-Off," Rob, the oldest this year whose daughter has Downs Syndrome, Logan and Ben who have both served in the military, and Alan who is the love child of Bigfoot and Penn Jillette.

Team Laura - Darla, Julian, Emily, Gregory, Stephanie

Team Rayce - Adam, Anthony, Rob, Logan, Regina

Team Anthony - Kelly, Alan, Ben, Daniel, Jamie

A place on the team isn't all that's on the line in this foundation challenge; the winner also receives immunity in the first spotlight challenge. The top looks were Rob and Darla and Darla, and Team Laura, come up with the crucial first win.

Spotlight Challenge
A brisk hike to the desert leads the contestants to alien crash sites and a mentor in the form of seven-time Academy Award winning makeup artist Rick Baker! Cue fangirl squealing from me all. Their task? Each team is to select an extraterrestrial crash site and use it as the inspiration for two aliens that emerged from the crash.

Team Laura - Alien eggs

Team Rayce - Alien crystals

Team Anthony - Guns and other assorted deadly weapons

Time to sculpt and mold and Logan smartly notes that when Michael Westmore gives you advice, you take it. Now to see if anyone listens. Anthony gets bad news when Mr. Westmore basically tells him he's a bad sculptor. Cue Kermit arms. Don't worry Anthony, it looks like Kelly sculpted alien grumpy cat. Now get some sleep, tomorrow will be better. And by better of course I mean...twist! (Drink)

You know what an alien crash site needs? Monkeys. Apparently the aliens didn't crash on Earth, they crashed on a planet patrolled by primates and these savage simians aren't going to monkey around with any intruders. (I'm so sorry.) So with two days left in the challenge, add a character based on one of the primates to your design seeing as you all have the time management piece well in hand.

To be continued!? Oh, very well. Tune in to Syfy next week at 9 p.m. ET for the conclusion of the first Spotlight Challenge of Season Eight.